


That There Would Be A Later

by TheGreatLibraryFangirl (Mazeem)



Series: Gaps in Canon [4]
Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Canon Filler, Gen, Smoke and Iron fill-in, background other characters, there is no way glain doesn't have real damage from the end of ash and quill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 18:39:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18287993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazeem/pseuds/TheGreatLibraryFangirl
Summary: With nothing else to do on the ship to Alexandria but brood and nurse her aching head, Glain lets her farming background come to the fore and goes to round up her sheep.Thomas is clinging on by his fingernails, Santi's probably lying to her, and Dario ... Dario is definitely lying to her.





	That There Would Be A Later

Glain made a circuit of the ship, checking on everyone.

Khalila had gone up on deck ‘to think,’ and Glain thought she might go mad if she sat in their tiny little room for any longer. She felt restless and useless, and her head hadn’t stopped aching since Jess had knocked her out several days before.

She found Thomas staring blankly at his hands near her and Khalila’s room, looking like an abruptly halted automaton. 

“All right?” She leaned on the wall next to him. He blinked and tried a smile. The expression in his eyes was awful. 

“I was just … thinking.”

“Knock next time, rather than standing out here. I only bite people who deserve it.” It was a shit joke, but he politely smiled anyway. 

“I had to leave my and Dario’s room. His condition has worsened somewhat.” He wrinkled his nose, and when Glain gave him a grin, a glimmer of genuine amusement flickered in the dark depths of his eyes. Just for a second.

He needed comfort. That wasn’t something she was any good at. Thankfully, she knew just the person. 

“Khalila’s up on deck, if you wanted to see her.”

He nodded. “I’ll do that. A change of scenery.” She gave him a quick handclasp of a hug, as long as she could bear and still she moved away first. Oh, Thomas. 

“I’ll see you later.” She held his gaze until he nodded again. That was all she could hope for, right now. That there would be a later.

* * *

 

Next, she knocked on Santi’s door.

“Captain?”

“What?” came the muffled response from behind the door. There were footsteps as he moved closer to the door. “Glain?”

“Yes, sir.” She tried the handle unsuccessfully, then waited. He didn’t open the door. “Sitrep, sir?”

“Sleeping, Wathen. Like the rest of you should be. The next time you wake me had better be just before we sink.” 

“Yes, sir.”

His voice had sounded rough. She wondered whether he’d been sleeping or just pacing. Or what nightmare she had woken him from.

* * *

 

Finally, she opened the door to Dario and Thomas’ room, and immediately wished that she hadn’t.  

“Not found your sea-legs yet, then?” she asked. He was curled miserably at the edge of his bed, hanging over a bucket.  

“Oh, fuck off.” He added a gesture for extra emphasis. She returned it with feeling. 

“You’d feel better up on deck, you know. I even promise not to push you overboard.”

He grunted in response, then leaned further over the bucket. 

Glain screwed up her face; she wasn’t squeamish but that had been half retch and half belch, and what landed in the bucket looked thick and viscous. Stomach acid?

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then.” She went to shut the door but he held up a hand to stop her, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Lovely.  

“No, I’ll get up. I want to speak to Khalila.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat for a second. Glain eyed him warily. Standing shouldn’t need preparation.  

She was already moving closer when he got to his feet, and she was still only just fast enough to catch him as his legs folded.  Up close, she could see big beads of sweat rolling down his pallid face, into his dazed eyes. He’d grabbed her arm as he fell and his hand was clammy. 

She couldn’t tell if he had his feet underneath him at all, but she could certainly tell she was the only thing holding him upright.  

She hauled him back to bed. He melted into the hard little bunk and muttered “Lo siento,” and she pretended that she hadn’t heard him, or didn’t understand the apology.  

It was something of a shock. She’d never seen anyone be this badly seasick before.  

“Have you never _been_ on a boat before?” She was relieved when he opened his eyes to glare at her with impressive intensity. 

“This isn’t a boat. I’ve been on a _boat_. I’ve been on my cousin’s yacht.” His voice recovered strength with every word. “This is a huge, rolling ship and for some godforsaken reason it’s sailing into a storm!” 

Contrary to what everyone thought of her, Glain did have a literary streak. Some said it ran through the Welsh instead of blood, and she preferred that stereotype to sheep-fuckers. Now hers made a cruel, bitter metaphor out of Dario’s last, frustrated words, and she couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Yes. Us. We’re the reason this thing’s sailing like it is. Godforsaken.”  

She hadn’t let fear overwhelm her yet and she didn’t now, so she caught Dario’s expression as he looked at her. 

That made her stomach clench and rage momentarily blind her.  He was planning something. Still. 

She’d tried to stop him and Jess planning before, at the Brightwell residence, and she’d been useless there, too. 

Jess had knocked her out. It had definitely been Jess - she’d spent a lot of time combing through her foggy memory of the event while her constant headache prevented her from sleeping. It was Jess who had punched her and Jess who had been plotting, and yet it was Brendan who had made the move to betray them, or so she’d been told. 

She could make the pieces fit but there was a shadowy second jigsaw under that and she hated the way it looked. 

Was there still more plan to unfold? Oh, she wished she knew. 

Still. What could Dario do from his bed? She’d get whatever he was planning out of Khalila later, assuming that was what Dario wanted to talk to Khalila about. It certainly wouldn’t be to whisper sweet nothings to her; not in this state.  

Wait, what if the whole half-faint just now had been faked, to lull her into a false sense of security? And more widely, to dismiss him as a threat entirely?  

She considered that for a long second, then dismissed it. It was easy to prompt vomiting or fake a faint, but harder to fake clammy, blotchy skin and stinking sweat-soaked clothes. 

Somehow she very much doubted any plan in which Dario had a significant input involved him deliberately looking quite as disgusting as he did right now. If anything, she thought, he’d underestimated it. She didn’t think he’d expected to faint when he stood.  

Dario’s voice registered vaguely in her ears. She shook herself, then wished she hadn’t as it made her ears ring. “What did you say?”  

He huffed a sigh.

“Nothing.” She wondered if whatever it was had been intended as a comfort, one that he thought she’d rebuffed. Well, that wouldn’t be unusual. 

“Could you get Khalila to come down here?” he asked. 

Glain snorted and adopted a mocking tone. 

“You must be half-dead if you think I can ‘get’ her to do anything. Fine, I’ll ask her. Warn her about the smell.” 

Dario’s smile went wide and warm and soft, and most definitely was not aimed at Glain. “Yes, I know what she’s like.” He blinked, and that expression was gone, thank fuck. “Thanks, Glain.” She nodded and turned on her heel, heading for the deck. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to do a quick little thing. Glain and Dario are an interesting pair, and we know how observant Glain is. 
> 
> Pretty much all of them seem to figure out what Jess has done very quickly, they just don't want to think about it too hard because of how much it feels like betrayal. Thought I'd give Glain that moment too. 
> 
> For the record, the head injuries she sustains as Jess' plan starts to unfold are: Dario hitting her hard as he could in the back of the head with a marble bust, Jess then immediately punching her in her face, and then being apprehended by the guards. Two periods of unconsciousness, very close together. And then if I remember correctly she gets another head injury shortly after this, when Anit's goons try to throw her overboard. I'm taking my headcanon of Glain with lasting damage as almost canon at this point.
> 
> Do I make a series of these little canon fill-in things, that's the question. I could.


End file.
